By Abdul Qadir Qureshi
(Pakistan News & Features Services)
The Federal Minister for Railways, Muhammed Azam Khan Swati, has declared that annual freight revenue of Pakistan Railways will be doubled in few months from PKR 11 billion at present to PKR 22 billion.
He made the pledge while talking to the media at the office of Divisional Railway Superintendent Karachi. “If I am unable to expand freight service then Railways may crumble like the Steel Mills, he reckoned while vowing to go all out to increase the freight revenue.
He remarked that one of his prime targets would be completely overcoming the losses and transforming the railways into a profit-earning entity.
The federal minister revealed that the railways’ schools and hospitals would be outsourced in order to provide best educational and medical facilities to railways’ employees and their children.
He emphasized upon the role of media as fourth pillar of the state, adding that his department was accountable to media before the nation.
Earlier the federal minister visited the Karachi Cantonment and the Karachi City Stations besides various stations on KCR loop and green line interchange area, the Diesel shed and Hasan Hospital under railways administration.